Deep Politics Timeline

[Tracy Riddle]

Nov 22 2pm

2:00 PM LBJ telephones Robert Kennedy from Air Force One. (The records of this call remain secret.) LBJ also telephones Abe Fortas to ask about Don Reynolds and his testimony yesterday before the Senate Rules Committee. LBJ wants to know if Reynolds linked him to the Bobby Baker scandal. LBJ then calls J. W. "Waddie" Bullion, a Dallas lawyer and Johnson business crony. LBJ calls, in part, for advice on what to do with his stocks in light of the market's almost certain plunge on news of the assassination. Observing LBJ's behavior, Kenney O'Donnell is heard to say, "He's got what he wants now. But we take it back in 68." RFK dispatches Jack Miller to Dallas to be his eyes and ears and to determine what has happened. Miller is an Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

Most of the TSBD employees left work for the day around this time.

At some point early in the afternoon or evening, a TV news broadcast (naming Oswald as being accused of killing Tippit, and as a "prime suspect" in the JFK killing) shows an interview clip of LHO from the summer in New Orleans.

According to 11/22/63 Dallas police radio transcripts, there were two separate groups of "tramps" taken off of the boxcars, located behind the grassy knoll, on two separate occasions that day. The records indicate that as many as 8 "tramps" were taken off of the boxcars that day. The first group was marshaled within 30 minutes of the assassination, and the other group, which were apparently the ones in the photographs, around 2:00pm. It is alleged the second group of tramps was Harold Doyle, John Gedney and Gus Abrams.

2:00 PM CST 3:00 PM (EST) FBI agents Sibert and O'Neill in Maryland are ordered into the case.

2:00 PM Sorrels orders DPD officers Osborn and Jones to take himself, Zapruder, Schwartz, and McCormick to DMN offices McCormick, DMN CD, 2002; Schwartz interview; Scally 2010 DMN unable to process film Zapruder & party walk next-door to WFAA studios Mack/SFM chronology; Trask, 101

2:00 PM (approx) Carcano rifle taken by Lt. Day to Identification Bureau of DPD and placed in evidence box. (CE 3145; H 26 830) Skaggs photo from around 2pm.

2:00 PM (approx) Marina found Lee's wedding ring in a china cup.

2:00 PM (approx) An elderly man named T. F. White works at an auto repair garage located at 110 W. Seventh Street - near the southwest corner of Seventh and Beckley. From the front of the garage, one can see the El Chico restaurant parking lot, five blocks north of the Texas Theater. White steps out of the garage to see what's going on. He sees a red four-door 1961 Ford Falcon (or a 1957 Plymouth?) in the parking lot, but not parked in the normal fashion as other cars in the lot. The red Ford is situated at an unusual angle next to a ground-level billboard sign. Inside the car is a man sitting in the driver's seat. It appears that he has parked the car behind the sign in such a way that it is less visible to the traffic on Beckley Avenue. White decides to move in closer to get a better look. As he approaches the car, he is coming from behind at a 45 degree angle to the driver's side. When he gets about ten to twelve yards from the car, the man inside turns his head suddenly to look behind. The movement gives White a clear view of his face. He can also see that the man is wearing a T-shirt. Upon seeing White, the man turns on the ignition and drives out of the parking lot at top speed. He is last seen turning left on Davis Street, heading west. Later today, while watching television at home, White sees a picture of the same man -- Lee Harvey Oswald. The red Falcon bears the license plate number PP4537. The license plate is registered to Carl Mather who lives in Garland, Texas. The Mather family happens to be close friends of the Tippit family. (The HSCA will take a deposition from Carl Mather on March 20, 1978. The deposition still remains classified, but a summary of it is published in the JSCA appendix.) The Fourth Decade/Nov. 1996
He wrote down the license plate number, because he had heard a description of the assassin coming in over the radio: TEXAS PP 4537. This number was traced to a blue '57 Plymouth belonging to Carl Mather, a close friend of Officer Tippit. "White said that after he saw the man sit in the car for a short time, the man left in the car at a high rate of speed, going west on Davis Street...White reiterated that he had correctly copied the number of the car and that after seeing the news reports of Oswald, he thought Oswald was possibly identical with the man White had seen in the car." (HSCA 12 39; Groden) When told by the FBI that Oswald was in jail at 2:00 PM, White will still maintain that the man he saw driving the red Falcon was "possibly identical" to the Oswald he had seen on TV after the assassination. Mr. White writes down the vehicle's license plate number. The plates belong to a blue 1957 Plymouth 4 door sedan - not a 1961 red Ford Falcon. The Plymouth belongs to Carl Mather, a long time employee of Collins Radio and close friend of J.D. Tippit. (Mather is later interviewed by the HSCA, but most of the documents relating to that interview remain classified in the National Archives.) Newsman and former Dallas Mayor Wes Wise hears of the unusual Oswald sighting. Mr. Wise and fellow news reporter Jane Bartell question Mather about the incident over dinner. Mather is so nervous he can hardly talk and says little. In 1977 the HSCA wants to interview Mather about this incident. He agrees, but not before he is granted immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department.

Oswald's prior connection to Collins Radio: Oswald, in the company of George De Mohrenschildt, had once visited the home of retired Admiral Henry Bruton, who was an executive of Collins Radio. Bruton had been a lawyer in Virginia before becoming a Navy intelligence officer. Bruton's specialty was electronic surveillance and this is what he was bringing to Collins Radio. In April of 1963, the Wall Street Journal announced that Collins would construct a modern radio communications system linking Laos, Thailand, and South Vietnam. On November 1, 1963, the New York Times reported that Fidel Castro had captured a large boat called the Rex which was being leased to Collins Radio at the time. The next day, one of the captured Cuban exiles aboard the Rex confessed that the boat had been used to ferry arms into Cuba and that "the CIA organized all arms shipments" (New York Times 11/3/63). The Rex reportedly was the flagship of the JM/WAVE fleet, the CIA's super station in Miami. Castro announced that the arms shipments were meant for an assassination attempt on top Cuban leaders.

Eugene Brading is still at the Dallas Sheriff's office, having been arrested in the Dal-Tex building immediately after the assassination for "acting suspiciously." His colleague, Morgan Brown, who is also staying at the Cabana Motel, departs abruptly at this time. (Conspiracy)

Head of the Dallas Secret Service Forrest Sorrels meets with Abraham Zapruder and requests copies of his film. Sorrels has arrived because members of the Dallas police have already visited Zapruder. They entered his office brandishing shotguns and demanded his film. Zapruder refused and demanded that a government representative be present. BT

2:00 PM (approx) The border with Mexico was closed "to prevent the escape southward of anyone who might have been connected with the assassination." (L.A. Times)

2:00 PM Shortly after 2pm (3pm EST) Shanklin told Hoover of Oswald's arrest and that the local FBI office had an open file on him. Hoover then asked how the president was - not JFK, he told Shanklin, whom he knew was dead, but LBJ, whom he had seen on TV clutching his chest in an odd way. (The Man and the Secrets 542)

2:00 PM (approx) Oswald arrived at the police station. (WR 8)
When the police car bringing Oswald from the Texas Theatre drives into the basement of police headquarters at about 2 p.m. on Friday, some reporters and cameramen, principally from local papers and stations, are already on hand. The policemen form a wedge around Oswald and conduct him to the elevator, but several newsmen crowd into the elevator with Oswald and the police. Sgt. Hill suggests to him that he could hide his face if he wants to. He says, "Why should I hide my face? I haven't done anything to be ashamed of." When the elevator stops at the third floor, the cameramen run ahead down the corridor, and then turn around and back up, taking pictures of Oswald as he is escorted toward the homicide and robbery bureau office. According to one escorting officer, some six or seven reporters follow the police into the bureau office. [From Friday afternoon, when Oswald arrives in the building, until Sunday, newspaper reporters and television cameras focus their attention on the homicide office. In full view and within arm's length of the assembled newsmen, Oswald traverses the 20 feet of corridor between the homicide office and the locked door leading to the jail elevator at least 15 times after his initial arrival. The jail elevator, sealed off from public use, takes him to his fifth floor cell and to the assembly room in the basement for lineups and the Friday night news conference. On most occasions, Oswald's escort of three to six detectives and policemen have to push their way through the newsmen who seek to surround them. Although the Dallas press normally do not take pictures of a prisoner without first obtaining permission of the police, who usually ask the prisoner, this practice is not followed by any of the newsmen with Oswald. Generally when Oswald appears the newsmen turn their cameras on him, thrust microphones at his face, and shout questions at him. Sometimes he answers. Reporters in the forefront of the throng repeat his answers for the benefit of those behind them who cannot hear.] Also, the name Tippit is not found once in the questions put to LHO immediately after his arrest, ostensibly for the murder of Tippit.

Oswald complained, "What is this all about?...I know my rights...A police officer has been killed?...I hear they burn for murder. Well, they say it just takes a second to die....All I did was carry a gun...No, Hidell is not my real name... I have been in the Marine Corps, have a dishonorable discharge, and went to Russia...I had some trouble with police in New Orleans for passing out pro-Castro literature...Why are you treating me this way?..I am not being handled right...I demand my rights." As soon as it became known that Oswald had been a defector and Communist propaganda was found among his belongings, there was instant local talk of the "international Communist conspiracy." (Death of a President)

Ian Griggs: One "official" account (published in the Warren Commission Report) indicates that between his arrest at 1.50pm on Friday 22nd and his death less than 46 hours later, Lee Harvey Oswald was put up on five separate lineups before no less than nine witnesses. Four of these lineups are scrupulously described and it is a simple matter to trace who appeared on them, either as witnesses or as Oswald's companions in the line, and which police officers organised them. During the preparation of this paper, I began to form a suspicion that the other lineup, the one involving Howard Leslie Brennan, never actually took place. This suspicion grew rapidly when I found another "official" version (again, published in the Warren Commission Report), which indicated that the only lineups attended by Oswald on Friday 22nd were those "at about 4:20" (obviously Helen Markham), "two hours later, at 6:20pm" (this would be Callaway, Guinyard and McWatters) and "a third lineup at about 7.40pm" (obviously the Davis sisters-in-law). The fourth and final lineup described is one at 2:15pm the following day.

News film footage captures Oswald being brought through an office in the police station where Billy Lovelady is sitting nearby. A clock on the wall shows the time as a minute or so after 2pm.

During his first interview today, Oswald tells Captain Fritz that he had arrived at N. Beckley and changed his trousers. The following day he tells Fritz he had changed both his trousers and shirt. Oswald described his dirty clothes as being a reddish colored, long sleeved shirt with a button down collar and gray colored trousers. He indicated that he placed these clothes in the lower drawer of his dresser (FBI memo of James Bookout). One "brown shirt with button down collar" and "one pair of gray trousers" were found at Oswald's N. Beckley address by Dallas Detective Fay M. Turner. Both articles of clothing were inventoried by Dallas Police and listed as "1 brown shirt with button-down collar and 1 pair gray trousers and other miscellaneous men's clothing" The gray pants, remembered by Bledsoe and Jones from the bus and by cab driver William Whaley, were also found at N. Beckley --- exactly where Oswald had told Fritz he had placed them.
The gray jacket worn by Oswald the morning of November 22, as remembered by Linnie Mae Randle and Wesley Frazier, may have been found by the Dallas Police at the TSBD. They found a heavy, blue colored, "Sir Jac" brand jacket at the TSBD. This jacket is never claimed by anyone. Marina Oswald will testify that her husband owned only two jackets, one blue and the other gray. The blue jacket was found in the TSBD and was identified by Marina as her husband's. Marina also identified Commission Exhibit No. 162, the jacket found by Captain Westbrook, as her husband's second jacket. Sylvia Meagher maintains, in Accessories After The Fact, that the jacket was NOT found by Westbrook. According to the list of items of evidence turned over to the FBI by the Dallas police on November 28, 1963, the gray zipper jacket which bears a laundry tag with the number "B 9738." When Captain Will Fritz interrogates LHO about his visit to his rented room at one o'clock, LHO will state that he had "changed both his shirt and trousers before going to the show." Fritz. with the gray zipper jacket (or a white jacket) already presumably in his possession, will not even ask LHO if he had put on any garment over his shirt. In short, both at the lineups and the interrogations, the police will act as though there is NO jacket, gray or white. The police never confront LHO with the jacket or give him the opportunity to confirm or deny that it is his property. "Oswald complained of a lineup wherein he had not been granted a request to put on a jacket" like the other men in the lineup. [WR 625] If the police really had in their hands a gray zipper jacket which they believed belonged to LHO and which they thought he had worn at the Tippit scene, why didn't they let him wear that jacket in the sight of witnesses for whose benefit LHO will soon be displayed in lineups? (AATF) COMMISSION EXHIBIT 162 IS A LIGHTWEIGHT GRAY ZIPPER JACKET.

2:00 PM LBJ calls Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and RFK.

2:00 PM - 2:35 PM (somewhere during this time, probably closer to 2pm) Dan Rather appeared on CBS-TV and said, "We are told that the gunshot wound - the fatal wound inflicted on the president of the United States - entered at the base of the throat and came out at the base of the neck at the back side." (As it Happened documentary) [Note: Where did Rather get this information about the exit wound at the base of the neck?]

2:04 PM The presidential limo leaves Parkland Hospital, driven by SS Agent George W. Hickey, Jr. and a Dallas police officer. It is placed aboard a cargo plane - an Air Force C-130 - and flown back to Washington, DC.

2:00-2:08 PM At about this time, the struggle over the removal of JFK's body began at Parkland, between local authorities and the Secret Service. A few minutes after 2:00 p.m. CST, and after a ten to fifteen minute confrontation between cursing and weapons-brandishing Secret Service agents and doctors, President Kennedy's body was removed from Parkland Hospital and driven to Air Force One. After a heated argument between Dallas officials and Secret Service men, the body of JFK is removed from Parkland Hospital almost at gun point. By law, it should have remained in Texas for autopsy. Dr. Earl Rose warns the Secret Service agents that they are breaking the chain of evidence. Roy Kellerman suggests that Rose might like to come along to Washington, watching the casket all the way to make certain that the chain of evidence was not broken. Rose replies: "There is nothing that would allow me to do it under our law. The autopsy will be performed here." Kellerman counters: "The family doesn't have to go through this. We will take care of the matter when we get back to Washington." A Dallas policeman, wearing a helmet and a revolver, now stands at Dr. Rose's side. "These people say you can't go," the policeman says. Larry O'Brien snaps: "One side!" Kenny O'Donnell says: "We're leaving." Dr. George Burkley raises his voice: "We are removing it! This is the President of the United States; you can waive your local laws." Moments later, Judge Theron Ward is stunned to hear District Attorney Wade state, over the phone, that he has no objection whatever to the removal of the President's body. The casket is wheeled through the hospital doors. (Bishop)

Outside the hospital, the bronze casket is quickly loaded into an ambulance. Roy Kellerman orders Agent Andy Berger to get behind the wheel of the ambulance and drive immediately to Love Field. Kellerman radios ahead telling his agents at Love Field to permit an ambulance and one following car through the fence. Kenny O'Donnell is also radioing identical instructions from the second car. He also says to tell Colonel Swindal, the pilot of Air Force One, to get ready for takeoff at once. (Bishop)

Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels will tell the FBI that he "remained at Parkland Hospital until the president's body was taken to Love Field." Still photos in the Warren Commission Report will reveal that Sorrels returns to Dealey Plaza. Back at the murder scene, Sorrels proceeds to find two star government witnesses who claim to have seen gunfire from the "Oswald window." He also discovers "that Oswald was supposedly the only employee missing from the School Book Depository" (several, in fact, are missing); and Sorrels will take Abraham Zapruder to Eastman Kodak to make copies of the film. BT

2:04 pm The casket and Mrs. Kennedy leave Parkland for Love Field.

2:06 PM LBJ phones three Dallas lawyers, attempting to obtain wording of the presidential oath of office. (Manchester)

2:06 PM ABCOn live national television, Bob Clark, in a telephone interview, gives a description of Jackie Kennedy with President Kennedy's casket.

2:07 PM The N.Y. Stock Exchange closes after the market falls 24 points. Certain individuals make over $500 million selling short.

EST? Memo from J. Edgar Hoover at this time: Shanklin called to report JFK "in very poor condition but not dead," that shots came from 4th floor of an unnamed building from a Winchester rifle; asked if RFK will be coming to Dallas; Hoover does not know.

2:08 PM CBSRobert Pierpont calls the New York office and gives an account of what he has seen and continues to report events as they happen. He ends as Jackie Kennedy walks out of Parkland Memorial Hospital with her hand resting on her husband's coffin.

Around this time, Lieutenant Jack Revill and Lieutenant Dyson, accompanied by three detectives, are still conducting a systematic search of the TSBD. Revill, about to leave, encounters and recognizes Charles Givens, who is known to the police on narcotics charges. Revill says: "I asked him if he had been on the sixth floor and ... he said, yes, that he had observed Mr. Lee, over by this window ... So I turned this Givens individual over to one of our Negro detectives and told him to take him to Captain Fritz for interrogation." (By the time Revill gives this testimony, Givens will have already provided a different version of the incident in which there is no mention of Revill or of seeing "Mr. Lee" on the sixth floor. It is also apropos to remember that Givens, like LHO, was missing from the TSBD after the assassination.) (Meagher)

2:10 PM WFAA's Bert Shipp and Sorrels speak to Jack Harrison at Kodak about processing Zapruder film Wrone, 20; Trask, 106; Shipp and Harrison SFM interviews

2:10 PM (approx) Abraham Zapruder is interviewed live on TV (WFFA) by program director Jay Watson.
WATSON: A gentleman just walked in our studio that I am meeting for the first time as well as you, this is WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas. May I have your name please, sir?
ZAPRUDER: My name is Abraham Zapruder.
WATSON: Mr. Zapruda?
ZAPRUDER: Zapruder, yes sir.
WATSON: Zapruda. And would you tell us your story please, sir?
ZAPRUDER: I got out in, uh, about a half-hour earlier to get a good spot to shoot some pictures. And I found a spot, one of these concrete blocks they have down near that park, near the underpass. And I got on top there, there was another girl from my office, she was right behind me. And as I was shooting, as the President was coming down from Houston Street making his turn, it was about a half-way down there, I heard a shot, and he slumped to the side, like this. Then I heard another shot or two, I couldn't say it was one or two, and I saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything, and I kept on shooting. That's about all, I'm just sick, I can't…
WATSON: I think that pretty well expresses the entire feelings of the whole world.
ZAPRUDER: Terrible, terrible.
WATSON: You have the film in your camera, we'll try to get…
ZAPRUDER: Yes, I brought it on the studio, now.
WATSON: …we'll try to get that processed and have it as soon as possible.
WFAA then shows a video tape of the hearse with Kennedy's body leaving the Parkland Hospital driveway. Watson next shows a photograph of the Texas School Book Depository and points to the sixth floor window.
WATSON: There is a picture of the window where the gun was allegedly fired from that killed President Kennedy…
ZAPRUDER: I must have been in the line of fire.
WATSON: … today. Excuse me, go ahead sir.
ZAPRUDER: I say I must have been in the line of fire where I seen that picture where it was. I was right on that, uh, concrete block, as I said. And as I explained before, is a sickening scene. At first I thought perhaps it's a, uh, it sounded like, uh, somebody make a joke, you hear a, a shot and somebody grabs their stomach.

Switching to ABC network coverage, former Eisenhower aide James Haggerty comments that this "has to be a planned conspiracy, this is the first time in our history when a rifle has been used and fired at a President…" From his experience with the Eisenhower administration, he explains that it is impossible to guard every building and window in a motorcade. ABC announces that 24-year old "Lee Oswald" has been arrested in connection with police slaying and "presumably the slaying also of the Secret Service man in another part of Dallas, which happened shortly before the President's [unintelligible; reporter is interrupted with another story]. Back to WFAA-TV coverage, photographer Ron Reiland is interviewed, just back from the Texas Theater. He says that the police officer was shot with a ".38 automatic…200 or more police officers went into the Theater and found a man sitting in the second row from the back that was armed with a shotgun." Crowd outside the theater was almost a lynch mob. Reiland says that at the TSBD they found an "Argentine 6.5 Mauser." [Later, unknown time]: Reiland's film footage a cop holding a discarded white jacket. Report that a man had come into the Theater "with a shotgun over his arm, of course everybody broke and ran…" Video of an officer holding a revolver and a wallet; the revolver is identified as the one used to kill the police officer, and the wallet belonged to the officer, found on the ground by the car.

Also brief footage of the Dallas police car driving Oswald away from the Theater. Police Capt Pat Gannaway is reported to have said that suspect worked in TSBD, had been in Russia, married to a Russian, and was the same man who shot Tippit.

NBC News coverage this afternoon: reporter James Kerr in Dallas says that J.D. Tippit "was shot to death by an unknown man in a car minutes after" the assassination. "The officer was shot about 2 miles from the scene" of the assassination. Reporter John Holten (sp?), part of NBC's White House news crew, was in the motorcade and related that the first shot sounded like a cherry bomb, then followed by "two or three more."

2:10 PM ABCListeners learn of Vice President Johnson's plans to be sworn into office. CBSCronkite announces reports of shock and sorrow across the nation: "I realized I'd been reporting all afternoon how the telephone circuits were tied up all over the nation as people called one another. And here, I was blocked the same way. All the lines were busy. Well, as you know, on automatic telephone exchange boards, the lines go right through ... Well, just as I sat there, one of them went black. And I grabbed it quickly, and sure enough, there was a woman on the phone with a very, I thought, phony English accent. 'Hello? Hello? Hello? Is this CBS? CBS?' And I said, 'Well, yes, this is CBS.' 'I'd like to speak to someone in the news. This is Mrs. Henry Johnson Jones.' I mean, at least three hyphens in the name, and [she] gave a Park Avenue address. And said, 'I want to complain to somebody at CBS News.' I said, 'You're speaking to someone in CBS News.' And she said, 'Well, I want to complain about your having that Walter Cronkite on the camera at a time like this, crying his crocodile tears when everybody knows he hated John Kennedy.' Well, of course, I certainly didn't hate John Kennedy, and that was, you know, something I didn't want to hear in the first place. And I was furious, and I said, 'Madam, you are speaking to Walter Cronkite. And you, madam, are a damned idiot.' And I slammed down the phone." Walter Cronkite, Anchor, CBS News April 14, 2004 Oral History Collection

KRLDCBS waits to air footage from Parkland Memorial Hospital as KRLD processes it. WFAATom Alyea tosses exposed film of the interior of the Texas School Book Depository to a coworker in the crowd outside the building. He then resumes his coverage of the police search within the sealed-off building. New York TimesTom Wicker calls in his story from the assassination to the swearing in.

2:10 PM From J. Edgar Hoover memo: called RFK to advise him of President's condition and was told by RFK that JFK was dead; repeated all information from phone calls from Shanklin.

Dallas Police Memo (dated today):
To: Chief Stevenson
Captain Fritz
Subject: Information on threats against President Kennedy
The wife of Detective RE Abbott said that a former employee at Parkland Hospital was heard by Mrs Johnson on the admission desk and a orderly named HOSEY saying that President Kennedy would be killed. The former employee was a Cuban. His name can be furnished by Mr Morgan, who is Mrs Abbott's supervisor.
OA Jones
Captain of Police

2:12 PM AP report: Dallas -- Lt. Erich Kaminski of the Secret Service bureau said the assassin's weapon appears to have been a "high-powered army or Japanese rifle of about .25 caliber. The rifle had a scope on it, he said. AP, 2:12 p.m. CST

2:13 PM UPIJack Fallon sends a wire report that police arrested a gunman. NBCTom Whalen announces that a weapon and three empty cartridges were found in the Texas School Book Depository.

2:14 PM AP reports that a Secret Service agent has been killed.

2:14-2:18 PM The O'Neal hearse, carrying the bronze casket containing JFK's body, arrives at the plane (Air Force One). It is hastily loaded. Clint Hill sees a photographer taking pictures. "I'll get him," he says to Jacqueline Kennedy. "No," she replies. "I want them to see what they have done." (Bishop)

Researcher Gary Mack states that Jimmy Darnell, a local photographer working for the NBC affiliate, films the loading of JFK's casket on to Air Force One. He films from close range. A Dallas Police officer confiscates his film. The film is now missing. Neither the FBI or the Dallas police have any record of it. (The Great Zapruder Film Hoax)

About this time, Senator Edward Kennedy and Eunice Kennedy Shriver arrive at the White House. (Bishop)

CIA Director John McCone will have a three hour conversation with RFK this afternoon as the two men pace the backyard of RFK's home in McClean, Virginia. RFK will later say that he asks McCone point blank if the CIA killed JFK. "You know, at the time I asked McCone...if they had killed my brother, and I asked him in a way that he couldn't lie to me, and they hadn't." In the days following the shooting, McCone will come to the conclusion that there were two shooters in Dallas. There is no evidence that he ever came to suspect his own agency. (Brothers)

2:15 PM Fritz returns from TSBD to homicide bureau and told his officers to pick up Lee Harvey Oswald, who was missing from the Depository. He was told that the man was already in custody.

2:15 PM NBC News reports that a rifle has been found on the fifth floor of the Book Depository Building. Newspaper reports indicate that the rifle is a Mauser. Also reported is the discovery of the remains of a chicken lunch left by the assassin on the fifth floor.

Fort Worth photographer George Smith arrives at Dealey Plaza. (Trask)

Mr. BALL - How long did you stay in the building, the Texas School Book Depository Building that afternoon?
Mr. JARMAN - I'd say it was somewhere between two and two-thirty when they turned us loose and told us to go home.
Mr. BALL - When you were there did you notice whether any of the employees were missing?
Mr. JARMAN - Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL - When did you notice, and who was missing?
Mr. JARMAN - When we started to line up to show our identification, quite a few of us asked where was Lee. That is what we called him, and he wasn't anywhere around. We started asking each other, have you seen Lee Oswald, and they said no.
Mr. BALL - Was there anybody else missing?
Mr. JARMAN - Yes.
Mr. BALL - Who.
Mr. JARMAN - Charles Douglas Givens, I believe.
Mr. BALL - Charles Givens?
Mr. JARMAN - Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL - Anybody else?
Mr. JARMAN - I can't recall.

2:15 PM Dallas Times HeraldThree pages are replated: the front page and two pages on Kennedy.

2:15 PM Howe tells Hosty that Oswald has been arrested. Alan Belmont soon called and ordered Hosty to take part in the interrogation of Oswald. (Assignment Oswald 16)
FBI agent James Hosty is at the Dallas FBI office, putting together a list of right-wing extremists who potentially might be suspects in the assassination. Supervising agent Ken Howe approaches Hosty and tells him, "They've just arrested a guy named Lee Oswald, and they're booking him for the murder of the policeman over in Oak Cliff." Hosty says the news hits him like a ton of bricks. Hosty tells Howe that he is almost certain that Oswald has to be the one who shot Kennedy. Howe then asks for the Oswald file. The men discover the file is gone. They find the file in the mail clerk's office. Special Agent In Charge, Gordon Shanklin, then sends Hosty to the Dallas police department in order to take part in the interrogation of LHO.

2:15 PM 2:15-2:20pm: Oswald talked with Officers Guy F. Rose and Richard S. Stovall. No notes exist. While in custody, no transcripts or recordings of Oswald's statements during 12 hours of interrogations were made (H 4 232; WR 200) The people present made statements about the event from memory (Appendix XI of WR); Fritz wrote in his summary that he had made "rough notes" during the interrogation, though these have never surfaced. (WR 611) Reports made by Fritz, Hosty, Bookout, Manning Clements, Thomas Kelley, and Postal Inspector Holmes on Oswald's interrogation can be found starting at WR 598. People present during his interrogation (Legend 355): Will Fritz, Thomas Kelly, Hosty, Bookhout, Manning Clements, Sorrels, David Grant, Holmes, Robert Nash, Fay Turner, Elmer Boyd. Sylvia Meagher points out that there seem to be no questions about whether Oswald had any accomplices, and there is very little about the Tippit murder. Meagher also says that not one report of the interrogations between 4:20 and 11:25pm on 11/22/1963 is found anywhere except for a report by Agent Manning Clements (WR 614-617; Accessories). Several SS and FBI agents who were present were never questioned by the WC. Posner claims that it was not the department's policy in 1963 to record interrogations: "The department did not even own a tape recorder [H 4 201,204]." Gary Mack confirmed this. Bill Alexander told Posner: "In Texas, an oral statement under duress was no good. We had Miranda before the Supreme Court handed it down for the rest of the country. We had to inform that he did not have to make any statement, and that any he did make had to be voluntary, witnessed, reduced to writing, and could be used against him. So our questions for him were strictly to get information, but there was no way they could be used in court....Even if we gave him the proper warning, and then reduced his statement to writing, if he then refused to sign it in the presence of a witness, it was useless. That's how strict the Texas law was...That's why it was not important to record or transcribe the discussions." Fritz told the WC that the Dallas police had no means to monitor telephone conversations. (Case Closed 343-4) "The only notes known to be taken during the long 12-hour interview of Lee Oswald after the assassination appear to have been burned. Notes taken by a federal agent who interviewed Oswald before the assassination also went up in flames. A secret Central Intelligence Agency memo concerning Oswald, written prior to the assassination, went up in smoke while being Thermofaxed." (Oswald in New Orleans 11) In the WC's evidence is a floor plan of the police station's third floor, which clearly shows a room called "RECORDING ROOM" near Capt Fritz's office. Gary Mack says that "Prisoners were questioned and asked if they wanted to make a statement; if they did, a stenographer was brought in to take it down for him to sign. The statement and other related documents were stored in the "Recording Room.""

2:17 PM J. Edgar Hoover memo: Shanklin called and said local agents had learned that JFK was dead. Shanklin said "they had located 3 or 4 shells in the building and the Sheriff's office had picked up one man." Shanklin said Dallas police had informed him that a Secret Service agent has been killed.

2:18 PM Jacqueline boarded Air Force One. (The Truth about the Assassination)

2:18 PM Seats have been removed in the rear section of Air Force One. JFK's casket is placed inside. The casket is secured on the left side of the plane barely inside the rear door. General Godfrey McHugh announces that "The President is aboard." He is referring to JFK. Kenny O'Donnell tells McHugh to "Run forward and tell Colonel Swindal to get the plane out of here." It is at this point that the Kennedy entourage is shocked to realize that the Johnson entourage is also aboard Air Force One. There is a feeling of awkward friction and tension. Mrs. Johnson, seeing that Mrs. Kennedy's dress is soaked in blood, suggests that she get someone to help her change. Mrs. Kennedy replies: "Oh, no. Perhaps later I'll ask Mary Gallagher. But not right now." LBJ and Mrs. Johnson retire from the aft compartment, and LBJ goes into the private bedroom to make certain that Marie Fehmer has the oath of office typewritten correctly. He barely sits down when the compartment door opens revealing Jacqueline Kennedy. LBJ rises immediately, asks Miss Fehmer to leave and apologizes to Mrs. Kennedy. He leaves the room and Mrs. Kennedy goes into the lavatory. (Bishop)

2:16 or 2:20 PM (approx) Parkland press conference; Dr. Perry describes an entry wound in JFK's throat. Apparently no video or audio footage survives. A White House transcript, discovered in 1976 at the LBJ Library, contained the following: Dr. Perry said the throat wound was "a bullet hole almost in the midline...in the lower portion of the neck, in front...below the Adam's apple." Dr. Clark said the head wound was at "the back of his head...principally on the right side, toward the right side." Perry repeated twice that the throat wound was "an entrance wound." (Best Evidence 72)
This press conference was the beginning of a truly bizarre chain of events. During the Warren Commission investigation, the exact words of this press conference were debated. By the mid 1970's however a transcript was discovered at the LBJ Presidential Library in Texas. (While the transcript says the time of the press conference was 3:16 CST, it seems likely this was supposed to read 3:16 EST, and that it really took place at 2:16 CST. This is supported by the TV coverage of the assassination, in which Walter Cronkite discussed the impending swearing-in of President Johnson -- which took place at 3:38 EST--in the same segment as he reported on the press conference.)
AT THE WHITE HOUSE WITH WAYNE HAWKS
MR. HAWKS- Let me have your attention, please. You wanted to talk to some of the attending physicians. I have two of them here, Dr. Malcolm Perry, an attending surgeon here at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He will talk to you first, and then Dr. Kemp Clark, the chief neurosurgeon here at the hospital. He will tell you what he knows about it. Dr. Perry.
QUESTION- Were you in attendance when the President died?
QUESTION- Let him tell his story.
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I was summoned to the Emergency Room shortly after the President was brought in, on an emergency basis, immediately after the President's arrival. Upon reaching his side, I noted that he was in critical condition from a wound of the neck and of the head. Immediate resuscitative measures
QUESTION- Would you go slower?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I noted he was in critical condition from the wound in the neck and the head.
QUESTION- Could that be done by one shot?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I cannot conjecture. I don't know.
QUESTION- A wound of the neck and of the
DR. MALCOM PERRY- of the head. Immediate resuscitative measures were undertaken, and Dr. Kemp Clark, Professor of Neurosurgery, was summoned, along with several other members of the surgical and medical staff. They arrived immediately, but at this point the President's condition did not allow complete resuscitation.
QUESTION- What do you mean by "complete resuscitation"?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- He was critically ill and moribund at the time these measures were begun.
QUESTION- Completely ill and what?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Moribund.
QUESTION- What does that mean?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Near death.
QUESTION- What was the word you used?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Moribund. Dr. Clark arrived thereafter, immediately.
QUESTION- Could you tell us what resuscitative measures were attempted?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Assisted respiration.
QUESTION- What is that?
QUESTION- With what?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Assisted respiration with oxygen and an anesthesia machine, passage of an endotracheal tube.
QUESTION- Does that mean you stick it in?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Yes, place it in the trachea.
QUESTION- Spell it for us, please.
DR. MALCOM PERRY- E-n-d-o-t-r-a-c-h-e-a-l. A tracheostomy.
QUESTION- Did they perform a tracheostomy?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Yes.
QUESTION- Would you spell it?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- T-r-a-c-h-e-o-s-t-o-m-y.
QUESTION- Was there a priest in the room at this time, Doctor?
MR. HAWKS- The doctor is just telling you about the operation.
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Blood and fluids were also given, and an electrocardiograph monitor was attached to record any heart beat that might be present. At this point, Dr. Clark was also in attendance.
QUESTION- What is his name?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Dr. Kemp Clark. And Dr. Charles Baxter.
DR. KEMP CLARK- I was called by Dr. Perry because the President
QUESTION- You are Dr. Clark?
DR. KEMP CLARK- I am Dr. Clark. because the President had sustained a brain wound. On my arrival, the resuscitative efforts, the tracheostomy, the administration of chest tubes to relieve any possible
QUESTION- Could you slow down a little bit, Doctor, please?
DR. KEMP CLARK- to relieve any possibility of air being in the pleural space, the electrocardiogram had been hooked up, blood and fluids were being administered by Dr. Perry and Dr. Baxter. It was apparent that the President had sustained a lethal wound. A missile had gone in or out of the back of his head, causing extensive lacerations and loss of brain tissue. Shortly after I arrived, the patient, the President, lost his heart action by the electrocardiogram, his heart action had stopped. We attempted resuscitative measures of his heart, including closed chest cardiac massage, but to no avail.
QUESTION- Was that closed chest?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Yes.
QUESTION- Does that mean external, Doctor, closed?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Yes. We were able to obtain palpable pulses by this method, but, again, to no avail.
QUESTION- What is palpable?
MR. HAWKS- What did you ask?
QUESTION- Palpable?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Palpable.
QUESTION- Palpable what?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Pulses.
QUESTION- Doctor, how many doctors were in attendance at the time of the President's death?
QUESTION- Doctor, can you tell us how long after he arrived on the Emergency table before he expired? In other words, how long was he living while in the hospital?
DR. KEMP CLARK- 40 minutes, perhaps.
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I was far too busy to tell. I didn't even look at my watch.
DR. KEMP CLARK- I would guess about 40 minutes.
QUESTION- Doctor, can you describe the course of the wound through the head?
DR. KEMP CLARK- We were too busy to be absolutely sure of the track, but the back of his head.
QUESTION- And through the neck?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Principally on his right side, towards the right side.
QUESTION- What was the exact time of death, doctor?
DR. KEMP CLARK- That is very difficult to say. We were very busy, and in answer to someone else's question, we had a lot of people in attendance. We elected to make this at 1300.
QUESTION- You elected?
QUESTION- What, sir?
DR. KEMP CLARK- We pronounced him at 1300 hours.
QUESTION- Thirteen of?
MR. HAWKS- 1:00 o'clock.
QUESTION- Can you describe his neck wound?
DR. KEMP CLARK- I was busy with his head wound. I would like to ask the people took care of that part to describe that to you.
QUESTION- What was the question?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- The neck wound, as visible on the patient, revealed a bullet hole almost in the mid line.
QUESTION- What was that?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- A bullet hole almost in the mid line.
QUESTION- Would you demonstrate?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- In the lower portion of the neck, in front.
QUESTION- Can you demonstrate, Doctor, on your own neck?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Approximately here (indicating).
QUESTION- Below the Adam's apple?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Below the Adam's apple.
QUESTION- Doctor, is it the assumption that it went through the head?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- That would be on conjecture on my part. There are two wounds, as Dr. Clark noted, one of the neck and one of the head. Whether they are directly related or related to two bullets, I cannot say.
QUESTION- Where was the entrance wound?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- There was an entrance wound in the neck. As regards the one on the head, I cannot say.
QUESTION- Which way was the bullet coming on the neck wound? At him?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- It appeared to be coming at him.
QUESTION- And the one behind?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- The nature of the wound defies the ability to describe whether it went through it from either side. I cannot tell you that. Can you, Dr. Clark?
DR. KEMP CLARK- The head wound could have been either the exit wound from the neck or it could have been a tangential wound, as it was simply a large, gaping loss of tissue.
QUESTION- That was the immediate cause of death the head wound?
DR. KEMP CLARK- I assume so, yes.
QUESTION- There is a rumor that Lyndon Johnson had a heart attack, and I would like to check that out.
DR. KEMP CLARK- I have no information.
MR. HAWKS- I don't believe these gentlemen were in attendance with the Vice President.
QUESTION- Where was he when this was going on?
MR. HAWKS- That is not a question you should put to this doctor.
QUESTION- Can you tell us where he is?
MR. HAWKS- I can't now, but Mr. Kilduff will be available later and we will take those details then.
QUESTION- We can't hear you.
MR. HAWKS- They were asking where the Vice President was, but I don't know at the moment. That is not the proper question to put to these gentlemen. They were busy with the President at the time.
QUESTION- Where was Mrs. Kennedy?
MR. HAWKS- I don't know that detail either. As you might suspect, we were all busy around here.
QUESTION- Can't we clear this up just a little more? In your estimation, was there one or two wounds? Just give us something.
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I don't know. From the injury, it is conceivable that it could have been caused by one wound, but there could have been two just as well if the second bullet struck the head in addition to striking the neck, and I cannot tell you that due to the nature of the wound. There is no way for me to tell.
QUESTION- Doctor, describe the entrance wound. You think from the front in the throat?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- The wound appeared to be an entrance wound in the front of the throat; yes, that is correct. The exit wound, I don't know. It could have been the head or there could have been a second wound of the head. There was not time to determine this at the particular instant.
QUESTION- Would the bullet have to travel up from the neck wound to exit through the back?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Unless it was deviated from its course by striking bone or some other object.
QUESTION- Doctor, can you give us your ages, please?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I am 34.
QUESTION- You are Doctor who?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Perry.
MR. HAWKS- This is Dr. Malcom Perry, attending surgeon, and this is Dr. Kemp Clark, chief of neurosurgery at this hospital.
QUESTION- How old are you, sir?
DR. KEMP CLARK- 38.
QUESTION- Is that C-l-a-r-k?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Yes.
QUESTION- Can you tell us whether the autopsy will be performed here or elsewhere?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I do not have that information.
MR. HAWKS- I don't know either.
QUESTION- Will there be one?
MR. HAWKS- I don't know that.
QUESTION- Where is the President's body?
MR. HAWKS- I couldn't tell you.
QUESTION- Was the President ever conscious after the bullet struck him?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- No, not while I was in attendance.
QUESTION- How much blood was used?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I don't know. There was considerable bleeding.
QUESTION- How soon did you see him after he got in?
QUESTION- Did you have to send for blood?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Blood was sent for and obtained; yes.
QUESTION- Where?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- From our Blood Bank.
QUESTION- Here in the hospital?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Here in the hospital.
QUESTION- How much was used?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I don't know.
QUESTION- Doctor, were the last rites performed in the Emergency Room?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Yes.
QUESTION- Yes, they were?
MR. HAWKS- Yes, they said they were. Kilduff told you, too.
QUESTION- Which room was this? What is the room like?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Emergency Operating Room No. 1.
QUESTION- How far from the door is that, and which way?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Straight in from the Emergency Room entrance, at the back of the hospital, approximately 40 feet.
QUESTION- Approximately what?
MR. HAWKS- Forty feet from the emergency entrance.
QUESTION- The first floor?
DR. KEMP CLARK- The ground floor.
QUESTION- How many doctors and nurses were in attendance at the time of death?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- There were at least eight or ten physicians at that time.
QUESTION- At least eight or ten physicians?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- Yes.
QUESTION- Did you think him mortally wounded at the time you first examined him, or did you think there was no possibility of saving his life at that point?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- No, I did not.
DR. KEMP CLARK- No, sir.
QUESTION- Did you say there were eight or ten doctors or doctors and nurses?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Eight or ten doctors.
QUESTION- Can we get that straight, Doctor? Did you say you did not think there was any possibility of saving his life when you first looked at him?
DR KEMP CLARK- That is what I said; yes.
QUESTION- How long had he been in before you saw him, sir?
DR. KEMP CLARK- This I don't know because I was not looking at my watch.
QUESTION- Who was the first doctor who saw him, and how long before he got there?
DR. KEMP CLARK- Just a matter of a few seconds.
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I arrived there shortly after his admission. I can't tell you the exact time because I went immediately and he had just been admitted and I walked in the room. I don't know the exact time. I was in quite a hurry.
QUESTION- Were there any members of the family or others in the room besides the doctors, in the Emergency Room?
DR. MALCOM PERRY- I am afraid I was not aware of that. I was quite too busy to notice.
MR. HAWKS- We will have to get those details from Mac.
QUESTION- Do you have any new details about our plans, what you are going to do?
MR. HAWKS- I can't until I get a reading from you fellows. For instance, you have a new President.
QUESTION- Do we? Was he sworn in?
MR. HAWKS- Well, he went somewhere to get sworn in. I assume he is sworn in at this time, but I wasn't in attendance. Obviously, you are going to have a new President. Let's put it that way.
QUESTION- Where is he going to be?
MR. HAWKS- That is what I am trying to find out. Mac is with him, trying to get the details, and he will call me or come in here. We will try to find out.
DR. PERRY- Can we go now?
THE PRESS- Thank you, Doctors.
MR. HAWKS- Your plans, what do you want to do?
QUESTION- First, is there any more about Mrs. Kennedy?
MR. HAWKS- Let's do some "supposing" because we need some planning for your press plane.
QUESTION- How about Mrs. Kennedy? Has she gone back to Washington, or is she going?
MR. HAWKS- That is what Mac is trying to find out now. This takes a lot of doing.
QUESTION- Can we stay here with the new President?
MR. HAWKS- If you want to stay here with the new President, if he stays here. I don't know that he is going to stay here. That is why I want to "suppose" here for a minute.
QUESTION- Let's put it on the basis of what the new President does. If he stays, we stay; and if he goes, we go.
MR. HAWKS- Suppose the body goes back and the new President stays? Do some of you want to stay, or go?
QUESTION- Stay with the new President.
MR. HAWKS- All right, that is what I wanted to find out. You know, there are buses and planes and things like that.
QUESTION- I know I won't be going back in any case. Can I get my luggage back here? How do we get luggage on the press plane off of there?
MR. HAWKS- If we decide to spend the night here, we will get the luggage here. Don't worry about it.
QUESTION- We have luggage in the wire car, but God knows where it is.
QUESTION- Where will the next briefing be, here or where?
MR. HAWKS- Right here, so far as I know. This is where Mac said he could come back to.

The hallway on the third floor of Dallas police headquarters is beginning to resemble Grand Central Station at rush hour. One officer admits that the analogy to New York city's famous train depot is an understatement. Capt. Fritz arrives back at Dallas police headquarters.

2:20 PM Sometime after 2:20, George Smith takes photos of the three tramps being arrested. Researcher Greg Jaynes used the shadows in the photos to calculate the time and decided this happened at around 2:15pm. Sometime around this time, photographers Smith, Beers, and Allen take a series of photographs of the three "tramps" being escorted by the police through Dealey Plaza. (Trask)

2:20 PM Katzenbach dictates the text of the presidential oath to Air Force One. (Manchester)

2:21 PM DPD officer Osborn tells dispatcher that he and Officer J.B. Jones are on "special assignment" with Sorrels (possibly related to the Zapruder film) 17H 428, 480; 23H 885

2:21 PM J. Edgar Hoover makes note of his conversation with James Rowley, chief of the Secret Service, repeating the "information" from his calls from Shanklin. Rowley is unaware of reports that one of his agents has been killed. "Mr. Rowley stated he was also thinking of subversive elements -- Mexico and Cuba. I then mentioned the Klan element." Hoover has apparently received some further information after Shanklin's 1:48 statement about a witness seeing a "Negro" shooter: "They do not know whether it was a white or a black."

2:25 PM 2:25-4:04pm Interrogation in Captain Fritz's office. Mae Brussell's paraphrasing of Oswald's remarks based on accounts by participants: "My name is Lee Harvey Oswald...I work at the Texas School Book Depository Building...I lived in Minsk and in Moscow...I worked in a factory...I liked everything over there except the weather...I have a wife and some children...My residence is 1026 North Beckley, Dallas, Texas." He recognized FBI Agent Hosty and said, "You have been at my home two or three times talking to my wife. I don't appreciate your coming out there when I was not there...I was never in Mexico City. I have been in Tijuana... Please take the handcuffs from behind me, behind my back...I observed a rifle in the Texas School Book Depository, where I work, on Nov. 20, 1963...Mr Roy Truly, the supervisor, displayed the rifle to individuals in his office on the first floor...I never owned a rifle myself...I resided in the Soviet Union for three years, where I have many friends and relatives of my wife...I was secretary of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans a few months ago...While in the Marines, I received an award for marksmanship...While living on Beckley Street, I used the name O.H. Lee...I was present in the Texas School Book Depository Building. I have been employed there since Oct 15 1963...As a laborer, I have access to the entire building...My usual place of work is on the first floor. However, I frequently use the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh floors to get books. I was on all floors this morning...Because of all the confusion, I figured there would be no work performed that afternoon so I decided to go home...I changed my clothing and went to a movie...I carried a pistol with me to the movie because I felt like it, for no other reason...I fought the Dallas Police who arrested me in the movie theater where I received a cut and a bump...I didn't shoot President John F Kennedy or Officer J.D. Tippit...An officer struck me, causing the marks on my left eye, after I had struck him..." When asked why he had bullets in his pocket he said, "I just had them in there." The first hour or so of the interrogation was conducted before any federal agents had arrived; Hosty and Bookhout showed up at 3:15.

2:30 PM Capt. Fritz sends Detectives Senkel, Potts, and LT Cunningham of the Forgery Bureau to 1025 North Beckley to search LHO's room. They arrive and wait for Justice of the Peace David Johnson and detectives Turner and Moore. (CD 81b) Jim Bishop and Sylvia Meagher report that a Dallas policeman whispers to Captain Will Fritz: "I hear this Oswald has a furnished room on Beckley." It is important to remember that, upon his arrest at the Texas Theater, LHO refused to give his address. He has no identification on his person which indicates that he is living in a furnished room on North Beckley Street. The TSBD records on LHO list his address as the Paine residence in Irving. Neither Marina Oswald nor Ruth Paine know the Beckley Street address. Nevertheless, Fritz related that "some officer told me outside of my office that he [Oswald] had a room on Beckley ..." (Bishop) (It has been suggested that the policeman who gave Fritz this information could have been Roscoe White.)

2:30 PM A plane takes off from Redbird Airport [a private airstrip located four miles to the south of LHO's Beckley Street address] - as witnessed by Louis D. Gaudin, the air traffic controller. It is a green and white Comanche-type aircraft. Gaudin speaks with the planes three well-dressed occupants. Forty minutes later, the plane returns to the airport with only two occupants. It is met by a part-time employee who is moonlighting from the Dallas Police Department. The plane then takes off again. According to CIA documents released in 1977, two Cuban men arrived at the Mexico City airport from Dallas, via Tijuana, on a twin-engine aircraft. The CIA receives "highly reliable" information that the men were met at the Mexico airport by Cuban diplomatic personnel from the Cuban embassy. One of the men then boarded either a FAR or Cubana Airlines plane, avoiding customs, and traveled to Cuba in the cockpit so as to avoid mixing with the passengers.

2:30 PM Dallas Times HeraldThe paper releases an update to its regular edition with a 150-point banner stating, "President Dead." Fort Worth Star-TelegramThe paper produces serial editions of the afternoon paper, remaking the front page page one whenever updates are available. Citizens in Fort Worth line up around the block at the Star-Telegram building to buy copies.

"At 2:30 P.M., police announced their search of the Texas Book Depository Building was finished." (Dallas Times Herald 11/23/1963)

2:30 PM Fritz told Detectives Stovall, Rose, and Adamcik to meet Sheriff Deputies at 215 West 5th Street in Irving, Ruth Paine's house. They meet Deputy Sheriffs W.E. Walthers and J.L. Oxford. (CD 81b)

2:30 PM (EST) The cabinet plane lands in Hawaii and refuels. (Manchester)

2:30 PM Judge Sarah Hughes arrives at Love Field, boards Air Force One to swear in LBJ.

This is the critical time period that author/researcher David Lifton theorizes that the body of JFK is left unguarded and could have been removed from the bronze casket aboard Air Force One during LBJ's swearing in. David Lifton puts forward in his book, BEST EVIDENCE, the theory that JFK's body was stolen from its coffin in the rear of the plane in the first few minutes directly after it was brought on board in Dallas. "The critical period was 2:18 to 2:32 PM (CST). It appeared, from the public record, that the coffin was then unattended." During the swearing in of LBJ as President, only General Godfrey McHugh remains with JFK's casket. Godfrey McHugh was listed in Who's Who in the CIA, a book confirmed by the Pentagon Papers as being accurate. McHugh's home of record is Fort Worth, although he was born in Belgium and educated in Paris. Jackie had known and dated McHugh during her "Paris days." Penn Jones, Jr. -- an assassination researcher who also retired from the military a brigadier general says: "Since the assassination was planned and executed by the military of the United States, we feel now that General McHugh was a high-ranking traitor for the military inside the Kennedy camp. We hope we are wrong, and we hope McHugh will defend himself, but the evidence so for indicates treachery."

2:32 PM NBCRobert MacNeil calls from Dallas reporting the president's condition upon arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital based on doctors' reports. EST?

2:35 PM AP bulletin: "Dallas police today arrested a 24-year-old man, Lee H. Oswald, in connection with the slaying of a Dallas policeman shortly after President Kennedy was assassinated. He also was being interrogated to see if he had any connection with the slaying of the president." AP report - Dallas - The Dallas police Department today arrested a 24-year-old man, Lee H. Oswald, in connection with the slaying of a Dallas policeman shortly after President Kennedy was assassinated. He was also being interrogated to see if he had any connection with the slaying of the President. Oswald was pulled screaming and yelling from the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. AP, 2:35 p.m. CST

2:37 PM Ruby called Alexander Gruber.

At approximately 2:37pm, Sergeant R.E. Dugger (18) radios in on Channel 2:
"I have Judge Johnston here with (illegible) Parkland. Was there just one (illegible) from the shooting from the Presid… party?"
Dispatcher (illegible) I had on it 18
Dispatcher: 18, There were some more injured, but I don't know who they were, or how severe.
Dugger: I didn't read you. You know anything about an injured Secret Service Agent?
Dispatcher: No, I do not. There were some more injured, but I don't know who they were.
Patrolman J.W. Brooks (174): One of the Secret Service men on the field Elm and Houston; said that it came over his teletype that one of the Secret Service men had been killed.
Dispatcher: Well, 10-4. I don't have that information.
Dugger: I believe this is going to be incorrect. He's not at Parkland. Can you have someone canvas the major hospitals please?
Garbled
Patrolman L.H. Marshall (139): I have a man out here that doesn't know anything about that.

2:38 PM Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as President aboard Air Force One by Hughes. Among those watching is Police Chief Curry. LBJ requests that Jacqueline Kennedy come into the stateroom and stand with him while the oath is being administered. Mrs. Kennedy is found by Evelyn Lincoln in the lavatory on the airplane. When Mrs. Kennedy steps into the stateroom, LBJ grasps both her hands and whispers, "Thank you." He downs a glass of ice water before taking the oath. General Godfrey McHugh is demanding